A piece of raw steel stock typically is not ready to be machined. The sides of the piece of raw steel stock are generally not flat enough nor sufficiently parallel. Therefore, the sides of the piece of raw steel stock are ground down to become flat and parallel within specified tolerances.
Conventional methods of transforming a piece of raw steel stock down to a flat machine-ready piece suffer from many disadvantages. The conventional methods typically include grinding, which uses ceramic and other abrasives. The grinding creates friction and thus heat, which warps the piece of steel stock. To counteract the heat and resulting warpage, the steel stock is flooded with coolant. The ground steel, the ceramic, and coolant combine into a toxic swarf and requires disposal in landfills. These grinding methods thus produce too much undesirable environmental waste, resulting in millions of tons of toxic waste being disposed in landfills. Further, conventional methods take too long and are too expensive.